Chess Opening Origins: Ruy Lopez

Today's openings are reruns of an old sitcom that we have all seen a hundred times before, while for players in the past, life on the chess board was wild, unexplored territory. Learning the details of that gigantic entity, the Ruy Lopez (from either side), is on par with the time that hateful 7th-grade teacher made us memorize the capital cities of every country in the world--in alphabetical order!

The Origins series is an attempt at a "big picture" view that displays the interlocking parts of a much larger mechanism in time.

In this volume, the authors cover lines where Black does not meet 3 Bb5 with 3...a7–a6, and vast portions of this volume, are devoted to Berlin Defense Closed lines and the Berlin Wall Ending.